Mystery object delays shuttle landing

[IRiSHMaFIA]

A camera in Atlantis' payload bay captured an unidentified piece of debris floating by the spacecraft.

Story Highlights

? Officials want to establish if mystery object was vital piece of shuttle
? Atlantis will come back to Earth Thursday at the earliest
? The shuttle has enough supplies to stay in space until Saturday
? Atlantis' robotic arm may be taken out again for an inspection


HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- NASA postponed the return of Atlantis for at least a day and examined the shuttle for damage that could prevent it from making the journey home after a mysterious object apparently fell off the ship in orbit Tuesday.

Space agency officials wanted extra time to establish whether the object was a vital piece of the shuttle -- such as the tiles that protect it from the blowtorch heat of re-entry -- and whether it harmed the spacecraft when it fell away.



Officials were not optimistic they would be able to identify the object, since the possibilities were almost endless, ranging from harmless ice to crucial thermal protection tiles. But the leading candidate was a plastic space-filler placed between the thermal tiles.

"The question is: What is it? Is it something benign? ... Or is it something more critical we should pay attention to?" said Wayne Hale, space shuttle program manager. "We want to make sure we're safe to land before we commit to that rather incredible journey through the Earth's atmosphere."

The shuttle has enough supplies to stay in space until Saturday while engineers on the ground figure out whether it can safely return to Earth.

The space agency did not rule out the possibility of a spacewalk to make repairs or, if the spacecraft is too damaged, sending Atlantis's six crew members to take refuge in the international space station and await rescue by another shuttle -- a scenario that NASA has been developing ever since the Columbia disaster in 2003.

Before the postponement, Atlantis had been scheduled to touch down just before daybreak Wednesday, when the weather forecast wasn't favorable for landing anyway. The landing time was reset for early Thursday.

The incident came near the end of what had been a nearly flawless mission devoted to restarting construction of the space station for the first time since the Columbia tragedy 3 1/2 years ago.

Mission Control spotted the baffling object -- the size of which was not immediately determined -- with a video camera in the shuttle's cargo bay. The object may have come out of the cargo bay early Tuesday, but officials were not certain.

The object floated near the shuttle in the same orbit for a while, slipping farther and farther away until it was just a dark speck in NASA video beamed down to Earth.

A few minutes after NASA made the midday decision to delay the landing, Atlantis astronaut Dan Burbank photographed what appeared to be another small object floating away from the spacecraft. But NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said: "They're not the same thing."

Later in the day, Hale said the object likely was a plastic bag that drifted out of the cargo bay.
A closer look

NASA engineers said they think the first object may have shaken loose from the shuttle during the firing of jets in preparation for landing. "Think about driving over potholes," Hale said.

Sensors on the shuttle's right wing detected some kind of impact about the same time the object was first spotted. But NASA officials said the fact that many of the sensors in that section were triggered -- rather than just one or two -- suggests they were set off by vibrations from the jet firings.

"We think it has nothing to do with anything," Hale said late Tuesday.

So the space agency concentrated on using a half-dozen cameras in the shuttle's cargo bay and on its robotic arm to look for damage, especially to the spacecraft's thermal skin or any mechanical systems.

NASA managers planned to order Atlantis' robotic arm, and possibly a 50-foot boom with sensors and cameras at its end, to be taken out again Wednesday for another inspection. None of the Air Force Space Command's radar or telescopes has been able to locate the object, said Sgt. Jennifer Thibault, a spokeswoman for the command, which is assisting NASA.

The space agency has been especially alert to damage to the shuttle's heat shield since the Columbia tragedy. A piece of foam broke off Columbia's external fuel tank during liftoff and gashed a wing, allowing hot gases to penetrate the spacecraft during its return to Earth. The ship disintegrated, and all seven astronauts died.

Atlantis was inspected repeatedly during its flight, and up until Tuesday, NASA said the ship had come through the launch and more than a week in orbit in remarkably good shape.

During their mission, Atlantis' astronauts completed three difficult spacewalks to connect a 171/2-ton addition to the special station and help open up two 240-foot solar arrays that will generate electricity.

Astronauts and cosmonauts have seen strange objects in orbit for years, usually debris, and thought nothing of it, said Roald Sagdeev, a former top Soviet space adviser and director of the East West Space Science Center at the University of Maryland.

This is the first time a space agency is taking an unknown object so seriously, and rightly so, he said.

"It's better to be very cautious," Sagdeev said.

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This looks pretty serious. I'm sure they'll make it back okay, but the object looks pretty big. When I heard about this on CNN I heard they saw one object then noticed another from the shuttle.

I hope the shuttle isn't losing critical pieces or something that could possibly damage it, but I'm sure NASA can give them a window as to where they could possibly avoid it when they plan on returning to earth, or alteast I hope so.

[faceless]

ALIENS!!!!!!!!!

[Gasman59]

It's Superman !!!

[Bat]

Super Aliens

[fritz]

I?m not going to put my little tin foil hat on yet.Theres so much crap floating around up there I?m surprised there hasn?t been an accident yet.

[Skylace]

I hadn't heard about this yet. Thanks for posting it.

[IRiSHMaFIA]

NASA: Atlantis to land Thursday



HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- NASA officials said Wednesday the appearance of pieces of debris floating in space outside Atlantis would not prevent a landing attempt Thursday at 6:21 a.m. ET at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Three objects were sighted during stepped-up inspections a day after the discovery of two other mysterious objects forced a postponement of the planned Wednesday landing.

NASA downplayed the discovery of Wednesday's objects, saying the important question was whether an in-depth inspection of the shuttle showed no damage to Atlantis' heat shield. An initial examination had turned up nothing of concern, NASA officials said.

"It's not uncommon to see little bits of pieces of things floating by," said flight director Paul Dye.

Atlantis commander Brent Jett described the objects as two rings and a piece of foil. He told Mission Control the first object, about 100 feet from the shuttle, was "a reflective cloth or a mechanic looking-cloth. ... It's not a solid metal structure."

NASA officials thought the debris may have come from the shuttle's cargo bay.

"Typically, when we open the payload doors on the first day of flight, we will see objects," landing flight director Steve Stich said. "It's a little bit unusual to see objects maybe this late in the mission."

Before the postponement Tuesday, Atlantis had been scheduled to touch down just before daybreak Wednesday, when the weather forecast wasn't favorable for landing anyway. The landing time was reset for early Thursday, with a good weather forecast.

NASA managers didn't see anything that concerned them during the initial inspection using the shuttle's robotic arm. But they decided to go ahead with another inspection using a boom as an extra safety precaution. That inspection was continuing late Wednesday morning.

The boom, which is attached to the shuttle's 50-foot robotic arm and has cameras and sensors at its end, can look at hard-to-reach places.

The first object sighted Tuesday morning appeared to drift away when landing systems were put through a normal but bumpy trial run.

Worry about whether it came from a crucial part of Atlantis was enough to make NASA postpone the landing. NASA officials said their best guess was that the object was a plastic filler placed in between thermal tiles which protect the shuttle from blasting heat.

But after being unable to determine what the object was Tuesday, NASA managers opted to spend early Wednesday making sure the shuttle was in good shape instead of concentrating on solving the mystery.


Heat shield crucial

The engineers' main concern was the status of the all-important heat shield, because a damaged shuttle skin led to the 2003 demise of the shuttle Columbia.

"We are going to verify that our critical heat shield is in good shape for entry to the best of our ability," shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said.

A second mystery object was spotted midday Tuesday and photographed by astronaut Dan Burbank. Jett said the object looked like a picture hanging clip. But it may be a garbage bag, which would unlikely be a damage risk, but the issue will be moot if the heat shield looks good, Hale said.

"So far we do not know the identity of the two things that floated away yesterday," Houston spacecraft communicator Hans Schlegel told Atlantis Tuesday night. "Today we want you to survey the vehicle to make sure it's ready for entry. Last night we already surveyed from ground."

Mission controllers also used cameras at the end of the robot arm to take pictures around the payload bay while astronauts slept on Tuesday.

[IRiSHMaFIA]

[fritz]

Just what I need a sonic boom just about the time I get out of bed.

[IRiSHMaFIA]

[eefanincan]

These spacecraft are just too old and instead of patching them up repeatedly, they should really be working on new ones.

[Gasman59]

[IRiSHMaFIA]